The present invention relates to an electrophotographic copying machine and, more particularly, to a cleaning device for cleaning a separation device in an electrophotographic copying machine, in which the separation device is provided for separating a copied paper from a photoreceptor.
An electrophotographic copying machine produces an electrostatic latent image onto a photoreceptor corresponding to a pattern image on a document such as a manuscript or book to be copied. Toner particles are electrostatically adhered to the latent image, so that the latent image becomes visible as a toner image. The toner image on the photoreceptor is transferred onto a copy paper by a transference charger.
Conventionally, to separate the copied paper from the photoreceptor, either mechanical separation means or electrostatical separation means are provided. As the mechanical separation means, a separation claw is provided as being faced to the photoreceptor for separating the copied paper when the separation claw becomes somewhat close to the surface of the photoreceptor.
Some of the toner particles remain on the photoreceptor even after the major parts of the toner particles disposed on the photoreceptor are transferred onto the copy paper during the image transfer. Therefore, the separation claw being close to the surface of the photoreceptor may scrape the remaining toner particles from the photoreceptor, so that the tip of the separation claw may become dirty with the toner particles. The thus scraped toner particles may drop onto the copied paper, thereby decreasing copied paper cleanliness.